PEPE on TCM on 2/19. (1 Viewer)

[Charles H]

The potential release of PEPE (1960) on dvd was under discussion on HTF a couple of years ago. A letterboxed 195-minute version is being shown beginning at 9:45 am. It appears to be getting more respect from Sony than MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, and I wonder if trotting it out on TCM indicates a dvd release in the future. Can a release of a restored print of the musical version of LOST HORIZON be far behind?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

PEPE was one of those long roadshows that was cut for general release.

At first, TCM's schedule showed it in a 3-hour slot --- it was recently changed to a 3-hour, 15-minute slot, so it looks like it'll be the whole movie. It's probably the longest movie with the shortest plot of all time. Pepe looks for his horse for three hours and fifteen minutes.

 

[Greg_M]

Never saw it, (Pepe) don't get TMC, but like to have "Lost Horizon" don't know why it hasn't been released to DVD, it got a good response when screened in LA a few years ago, Sony executives were in attendance.

 

[Matt Hough]

I saw it many years ago and thought it terrible (though there were some interesting sequences). I did buy the soundtrack LP which was a collector's item for many years.

I certainly intend to watch/record it when it comes around. My memory is too foggy about the film not to give it another chance.

 

[Bob Graham]

Correction, Joe. Pepe looks for his donkey for three hours and fifteen minutes.

 

[JPCinema]

If anyone could record it on DVD for me I would be eternally gratefull!!! It is a very much loved "guilty pleasure" for me!

 

[Thomas T]

No, Cantinflas doesn't look at his donkey for 3 1/2 hours! He also looks at Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Edward G. Robinson, Donna Reed, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones, Jack Lemmon, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, Greer Garson among many many actors making cameo appearances in the film.

 

[serenapowell]

TCM has conditioned me to prefer those snappy, fast-paced B-movies that only last 60-80 minutes. But with a cast like that, I'll gladly sit through PEPE, and I'd definitely buy the DVD!

 

[Darren Gross]

Plus, you get JACK LEMMON playing JACK LEMMON while shooting SOME LIKE IT HOT, running off to an appointment in drag.

The film's full of fun cinematic footnotes. Kind of endless, but the cameos give it moments of spark.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Maltin calls it "incredibly long and pointless."

Trivia note: a recording of the theme song was done by Duane Eddy. It was in the Top 40 for seven weeks and peaked at #18 in January, 1961. It is not the version which appears in the film.

 

[Thomas T]

re: "Maltin calls it incredibly long and pointless"

Does anybody take a hack like Maltin seriously anymore? Isn't he the movie reviewer equivalent of industry TV tabloids like Entertainment Tonight or The Insider and their ilk? In fact, isn't he an employee of one of those shows?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

It's impossible to take Maltin seriously. Huge numbers of movies in his book were obviously not reviewed by anyone, because no one has seen them in decades. He just slapped a **1/2 rating on them and said something vague like, "Average Western."

 

[MatthewA]

Does anyone take ANY film reviewer seriously anymore? I know I surely do not.

 

[Rob_Ray]

It may have seemed long and pointless in 1960, but I think critics were missing the point entirely. The admittedly stupid plot was merely an excuse to hang all the wonderful cameos and today it's the only opportunity to see things such as Maurice Chevalier's Las Vegas nightclub act, along with appearances by now-iconic performers from an age of entertainment which we'll never see again.

Pepe will never be a great movie as a movie, but as a record of 20th Century performance art, it's a minor classic and not all that inferior to another overlong cameo-laden opus that won the Best Picture Oscar, Around the World in Eighty Days. To me, it's a not-so-guilty pleasure and I hope it gets a DVD release soon.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

The studios used to do things like that all the time. The Broadway Melody of 1930, Grand Hotel, and similar productions were little more than an excuse to trot out their stables of stars. Pepe must be one of the longest of the genre, as well as one of the last (Mel Brooks' Silent Movie is something of the same kind).

 

[Rob_Ray]

What I like about Pepe as opposed to Around the World or It's a MMMMM World is that the people making cameos actually got a chance to really *do* something, rather than merely show up so we could say "there's so-and-so!" The stars featured in Pepe actually 5-10 minutes to show why they were stars in the first place.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Don't get me wrong, I plan to Tivo it. But 195 minutes kind of takes my breath away!

 

[Mark B]

My favorite part is in the nightclub with Bobby Darin, which leads into the WEST SIDE STORY influenced sequence with Shirley Jones. It's funny, for a self-professed non-dancer, she does an admirable job on that one and the dance with Dan Dailey.

 

[Darren Gross]

All the songs are another reason its a must-record. I highly doubt Sony is going to by the expensive music rights for Pepe in order to put it on DVD. Tape it while you can.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I don't quite understand music rights. Does TCM have to pay for any kind of music rights to show the movie?